RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Nabatseans Nahum
ically from their relations to commerce, the merchandise from the East and Southeast having for at least four centuries and perhaps for a 3. Signifi- longer period to pass through their tercance, ritory and to pay them tribute. They Language, have, moreover, left very interesting Religion, cultural remains, especially at Petra (see Selah), at El-Hejr, and other places. They should be noted also for their patriotism, which enabled them at times to defeat and at other times to compete on even terms with the Syrian and Roman powers. Their position on the border of the desert and partly in it is registered in the remains of their language, in which a number of Arabisms are taken up, these increasing in number toward the south. In the inscriptions the letters are grouped in words, and the letters are often connected in a way which suggests the Arabic and Syriac as opposed to the ordinary individualism of Hebrew and Aramaic writing. Of their religion little is known; the chief deity seems to have been Dusara (Gk. Dusares), according to Arabic etymology meaning " god of (the mountain district of) Sara," i.e., the mountain region between the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Akaba. He is sometimes identified with Tammuz (q.v.), and appears to have been born of the virgin goddess Allat. He was represented under the form of an oblong stone twice as high as it was broad and erected upon a pedestal. He seems to have been worshiped under a number of names into most of which El, " God," enters as an element. Allat, a goddess widely known in Arabia, was also worshiped, and her name enters frequently into the composition of proper names. Two deities known as Manutu and Kaishah were adored at Hegra. The monuments indicate that some at least of the kings were deified, possibly not till after death. Geo. W Gilmohe.
Bibliography: E. M. Quatrimere, Melanges d'histoire et de philologie orientale, pp. 58-159, Paris, n.d.; idem, in Nouveau Journal asiatique, xv (1835), 5-55, 97-137, 209-240; J. G. Droysen, Geschichte des Hellenismus, ii. 2, pp. 55- 59, 2d ed., Hamburg, 1836-43; JBL, 1862, pp. 103-115; E. Kuhn, Die stadtische und burgerliche Verfassung des rumischen Reichs, ii. 165-169, Leipsic, 1865; M. de Vogiie\ Syrie centrale, pp. 100-124, Paris, 1869; Schrader, KAT, pp. 147, 152-152 et passim; idem, Keilinschriften und Geschichtsforschung, pp. 99-116, Giessen, 1878; F. Delitzsch, Wo lag das Parodies, pp. 296-301, Leipsic, 1881; C. Huber, Journal d'un voyage en Arabie, Paris, 1881; P. Berger, V Arabie avant Mahomet d'apres les inscriptions, Paris, 1885; G. Perrot, Hist, de Vart dans Vantiquiti, iv. 344-346, 389-394, Paris, 1887; F. Lenormant, Hist, ancienne de V orient, vi. 466-470, Paris, 1888; F. Vigouroux, Melanges bibliques, pp. 308-321, Paris, 1889; idem, Dictionnaire, fasc. xxvii., 1444-1455; E. Glaser, Skizze der Geschichte und Geographie Arabiens, vol. ii. passim, Berlin, 1890; P. Berger, Hist, de Vecriture, p. 277, Paris, 1891; B. Miese, Geschichte der griechischen und makedonischen Staaten, i. 300 sqq., Gotha, 1893; C. Clermont-Ganneau, Recueil d' archeologie orientale, i. 39-74, ii. 185-234, 368-377, iv. 191, Paris, 1896-1902; M. J. Lagrange, in Revue biblique, 1897, pp. 223-224; idem, Etudes sur les religions sSmitiques, pp. 70-83, 501-504, Paris, 1905; F. H. Vincent, in Revue biblique, 1898, pp. 567-588; R. Dussaud and F. Maclere, Voyage archeologiqueau Safa et dans le Djebel ed-DriXz, Paris, 1901; idem, Missions dans les regions desertiques de la Syrie moyenne, ib. 1903; H. Hilprecht, Explorations in Bible Lands, Philadelphia, 1903; R. E. Brunnow and A. Domaszewski, Die Provincia Arabia, Strasburg, 1904; R. Dussaud, in JA, 1904, pp. 189-238; Schurer, Geschichte, i. 726-744 (contains matter not in the Eng. transl., I., i. 345-362),
JE, ix. 139; and the literature under Hasmoneans and
SeLEUCIDvE.
On the coins consult: Revue numismatique, 1858, pp. 292-316, 362-385 (by Due de Luynes), 1868, pp. 153- 168 (by M. de Vogue); III., v (1887), 369-377 (by Sorlin- Dorigny and Babelon); Levy, Numismatische Zeitschrift, iii (1871), 445-448; De Saulcy, in Annuaire de la societe francaise de numismatique, iv. 1 (1873, 1—35; idem, in Melanges de numismatique, iii (1882), 193-197.
On the inscriptions consult: CIS, II., i (1893-1902), 181-489; J. Euting, Nabataische Inschriften aus Arabien, Berlin, 1885; Dussaud et Macler, in Voyage, ut sup., pp. 168, 187; ZDMG, 1869, pp. 150-154, 652-654, 1884, 144, 654; E. Renan in JA, VII., ii (1873), 366-382; idem, Documents recueillis dans le nord de I' Arabie, Paris, 1884; Halevy, in REJ, ix (1884), 8-16; P. Berger, in Comptes rendus de Vacademie des inscriptions, IV., xii (1884), 377- 393; C. Doughty, Documents epigraphiques recueillis dans le nord de V Arabie, Paris, 1884; A. Neubauer, in Studia Biblica, pp. 209-232, Oxford, 1885; JA, IX., xiii (1896), 304-316, 485-497, x (1897), 197-207, 214-217, xi (1898), 129-146 (by M. de Vogue), x (1897), 518-535, xi (1898), 523-533 (by C. Clermont-Ganneau) ; G. A. Cooke, Text- Book of North Semitic Inscriptions, pp. 214-262, London, 1903.
NABONIDUS, nab"o-nai' [or ni] drjs. See Babylonia, VI., 1, and VI., 7, § 3.
NADAB: Second king of Israel, son and successor of Jeroboam I. His dates according to the old chronology are 954-952, according to Kamphausen and the modern school 915-914. The Biblical source is I Kings xiv. 20, xv. 25-30. He was evidently aggressive in character and aimed to carry out the policy of his father in the relations with Judah, for his death occurred while he was besieging Gibbethon, a town of the Philistines and therefore appertaining to Judah. He was assassinated by Baasha (q.v.), who exterminated the family of Jeroboam and seized the throne, thus establishing a new dynasty.
NAHUM, ne'hum: One of the minor prophets. The name means "comforter." In i. 1 the prophet is called " the Elkoshite " which, according to Jerome, ad loc, refers to a village in Galilee, probably represented by the modern al-Kauzah in Naphtali; while Epiphanius seeks the site near Bet-Jibrin in the vicinity of Eleutheropolis. Others, without sufficient reason, have seen Elkosh in Capernaum, explained as " village of Nahum "; and the modern Orientals regard the village of al-Kush near Mosul as the birthplace of the prophet on the basis of a sixteenth-century tradition. The view of either Jerome or Epiphanius is preferable (cf. Nah. i. 9, 12, 13, ii. 1). The supposition that Nahum wrote in Assyria is purely subjective, for his acquaintance with Assyrian matters is merely what any inhabitant of Palestine could have had from the Assyrian invasion. The Assyrian loan words minzar, " prince," and tifsar, " captain " (iii. 17), may, in like manner, be derived from the sojourn of the Assyrians in Palestine (cf. Jer. Ii. 27). It is generally held that the book, which was indeed " comforting " to Israel in its prophecy of divine vengeance on Assyria, was written in the reign of Hezekiah. Others make Nahum a contemporary of Manasseh, while Ewald dates him in the reign of Josiah, and Hitzig still later; Cocceius places him in the period of Jehoiachim and Clemens of Alexandria in that of Zedekiah; while Bochart makes him later than Jeremiah and Ezekiel. It is thus evident that the text gives no certain evidence of its date of composition. Such
Nairne Names